high-performing, high-poverty schools

Leadership, Sept, 2001 by Jennifer A. Bell

HIGH-PERFORMING, HIGH-POVERTY SCHOOLS ARE DISTINGUISHED BY THEIR STRENGTH OF LEADERSHIP AND THEIR UNDERSTANDING OF HOW CHILDREN LEARN.

"How many effective schools would you have to see to be persuaded of the educability of poor children? If your answer is more than one, then I submit that you have reasons of your own for preferring to believe that pupil performance derives from family background instead of school response to family background. We can, whenever and wherever we choose, successfully teach all children whose schooling is of interest to us. We already know more than we need to do that. Whether or not we do it must finally depend on how we feel about the fact that we haven't so far."

-- Ronald Edmonds, Harvard University

The quote above captures the essence of how high-performing, high-poverty schools may hold the key to our understanding of successful school reform. Experience has taught us that in most low-performing and high-poverty schools, the quality of curriculum and instruction are rarely volunteered as significant determinants of students' academic performance. Rather, characteristics inherent in the students' home backgrounds are almost always advanced as reasons for their academic weaknesses. In the absence of credible models of success, the prevailing orthodoxy that demographic factors will overwhelm school-related variables maintains its veneer of certainty.

For those who have had the privilege of observing them, high-performing, high-poverty (HP2) schools are distinguished from their counterparts not merely due to extraordinary acts of heroism. Rather, HP2 schools stir the imagination because of the extent to which adults exercise influence over the quality of instruction, curriculum and the school's learning environment.

HP2 schools appear to routinely provide for low-income and other historically marginalized groups of students the same opportunities to acquire intellectually challenging subject content that are taken for granted in more affluent communities. They are more likely to embrace, and even surpass, requirements of the state's accountability system. They tend to engage in school practices that reflect a culture of success and excellence. And they respect the primacy of adults supporting one another, as well as children, toward a common vision of success in school and life. As observed by Joseph F. Johnson, et al., HP2 schools "accept no excuses" for poor academic performance.

Like Edmonds, we question why more has not been learned from the practices of HP2 schools, and why their accomplishments have largely been met with casual indifference. In fact, the rarity with which we encounter high-performing, high-poverty schools is often cited as "proof" that their efforts, commendable though they may be, cannot realistically be expected of other schools sharing similar demographic characteristics.

Many of these perceptions were challenged last December when about 200 of the state's education leaders joined with 12 California HP2 schools at the landmark High-Performing, High-Poverty Schools Symposium in Sacramento.

HP2 Symposium

Sponsored by the Statewide System of School Support (S4)-School Support and Improvement Centers, in collaboration with other educational organizations, the intent of the HP2 Symposium was threefold. First, inform and enrich the knowledge of educational leaders and school support providers who wish to raise academic achievement in low-performing schools. Second, deepen participants' understanding of why the schools were effective in educating student populations that historically have had low academic achievement. And third, contribute to the body of knowledge regarding what helps students from diverse backgrounds learn in California and throughout the nation.

Rigorous criteria were employed to identify and select the schools. Ten elementary schools and two high schools emerged which met the following criteria: statewide API ranking of 7 or above over two years; 50 percent or more students qualifying for free and reduced lunch at the high school level and 60 percent or more at the elementary level; and inclusion of a high percentage of students' test scores in the school's API over a two-year period. In addition, S4 directors visited the schools to validate their designation as high performing.

Format of the symposium

Represented by the principal, selected teachers and a district administrator, each HP2 school team was matched with one or two nationally renowned researchers for a two-hour dialogue on the reasons for their high performance. The audience was subsequently provided opportunity for a follow-up interactive discussion with the school teams and researchers. The schools also mounted a "gallery walk" of exhibits, which served as a visual representation of their students' journey from the margins toward the summit of academic performance.

Researcher-discussants were selected based on their experience and knowledge of schools with characteristics similar to those in the sample. Many researchers had been recognized for their recent study of, and fieldwork with, high-poverty schools in California and throughout the country. Some of the researchers also had published recent studies on effective teaching/learning strategies and district support for school reform.